HMV has brought out a new collection of 2 CDs. The collection is called Golden Greats (probably). I had a glimpse of the same at a local store.

Time and again, HMV have proved their worthlessness.. u find the same songs, starting with Awara hoon and ending with Kabhi Kabhi. The collection is accompanied with a pamphelt by Subhash Kumar Jha, who does 'ENGLISH' his way into music.. he talks more English than music. His observations are pedestrian, and often misleading, (who knows, maybe purposeful) for eg, he cites 'Kai baar yun bhi dekha hai' as an easy going no..

It is due to critics like Mr Jha, music criticism has barely progressed beyond the primitive.

Even Salil Babu would never have called 'Kai baar' as a cakewalk.. the control which Mukesh had to exercise in this no is not only exemplary, not also hardly repeated.

Why doesnt HMV bring out compilations which are beyond the reach of the average music lover? I would, for example, site 3, to start with.. and asking members to contribute so that we can forward the same to HMV


1. Shankar Jaikishen - Jeevan bhar dhoonda jisko - Nadaan
2. Salil Chowdhury - Zindagi khwab hai - Jaagte Raho
3. R D Burman - Haan to main kya keh raha tha - Raja Rani


Choices invited

Anirudha

I totally agree with you Anirudha.
Mukesh has done wonders with the way he has sung this song. To site an example, I played this song when my cousins had come to my place last summer. They are aged 8 to 10 and are more in tune with remixes available today.
Imagine my pleasure when I was asked to play this song over and over again. Later I learned that my youngest cousin snag this song during his school gathering.
All this was a shock to some of my relatives who appreciate Talat and Rafi more.
But they acknowledged that this song sung by Mukesh is really special.

Dear Anirudha,
The critics like Subhash K Jha, have little knowledge of film music but they pose as if they are the judges of the film songs. They more act as PROs for the music coys and have no concern for the music lovers. This is the reasons that music coys churn out the same songs over the years. The music lovers have to play an active role by rejecting such songs dished out time & again and get the music of their taste.

brgarg

Yes, and in this regard why dont we make our own list and send it to HMV / Universal? While HMV repository is mind boggling, Universal does provide you better recording quality. This gesture would,at least, create some consciousness amongst music companies that there is a demand for numbers other tha the ones which are rehased under various labels!

Dear Anirudha, Chetan Naik and friends,
I just read your postings on recordings that have come out of HMV over the years. I couldn't agree more on what you people said. You hit the nail right on the head. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am and angry to certain degree about the slipshod way HMV managed their inventory of priceless recordings they have emassed since the British era. People like Sanjeev Kohli at HMV who manages the master tapes in HMV vaults have no clue the value of those recordings. They have no idea how to efficiently manage and maintain those tapes. The master tapes are suppose to be kept in a controlled environment but if you listen to any of those old EMI/HMV recordings, whether its CD or LP or Cassette Tape, the quality is horrendous! I have compared the sound of some of the classic Hindi movie song LPs just when they first came out back in the 50s and 60s, to the reissues of the same recordings that came out recently. The originals issue sounded so much better than the current re-issues. The re-issue sound is deteriorated with drop-outs, crackling and all kinds or distortions you can imagine. Undoubtedly that's because of poor maintainance. To top it all they are even undermining the very talent and creativity of great musicians, singers we are all so proud of, by altering the recording with remixed sound and poor remastering. I have Hindi music CDs from EMI or HMV or RPG or Saregama ( or whatever they are calling themselves next month ) where almost all the songs overlap each other when you rip them in to MP3s. To make matters worse, some of the songs' ( Well, most of them! ) intro and endings are chopped off or faded out too early to include pathetic rantings from people like Subhash Kumar Jha. There are countless number of recordings of movies, folk and classical music from
regional languages like Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil owned by EMI/HMV languishing in the vaults, probably never see the light of the day. Even when they come out, I am sure somebody in there would do their best to corrupt the quality as if they are doing a great favour to the community. In the U.S and the U.K the record companies, audio engineers and enthusiasts strive so hard to bring classic recordings in it very original sound with tireless effort and energy in to those projects. Most of those recordings sound better than the originals. In India its a sorry state of affairs. Amen!
Sham